Mind Games
by Ironwood Ashes
Summary: New characters and old favorites in an original story, filling out some of the missing pieces from the original plot. What went on before Wanderer/Melanie arrived on the scene? Can Wanda's lessons help gain acceptance for the souls that join Jeb's group?
1. Disclaimer

**DISCLAIMER**: I will state this clearly at the beginning of the story instead of chapterly so as to avoid having to write tons of them later on:

This is a **FANFICTION** site (duh…says right on it…) and thus, I am **NOT** Stephanie Meyer, and I do not own The Host or any of its lovely, creative cannon characters. Life's a bitch. And then you die.

I will, however, claim bragging rights on providing a bit of back-story for some of the sorely neglected cannons. Anyone who's read the novel with a modest degree of interest will be able to tell which ones those are.

And I _do_ own the following characters, who are _completely_ my own invention: Emma West and family, Crystal Spirals, and Christopher Jones. More may be noted as the story advances.


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

I shuddered violently and fell to my knees, my arms wrapped tightly around my torso as I made my way down the hall of my small apartment. Further waves of nausea smote me to the floor as I reached my destination – the bathroom. I felt slightly better with my cheek pressed to the cold linoleum...it eased the lightheadedness a little. The knowledge that I could fall no further – in any way, shape, or form – was also a small comfort to me.

I just hoped that damn woman would leave us in peace for a while. If she didn't, then maybe Emma would become strong enough to take back some control of…of _our_ body, and she'd punch the vile Seeker's lights out.

Horrified as I would be to do anything like that myself, allowing _her_ to do it _through_ me was another story. For a moment, we imagined Emma's fist colliding forcefully into the side of the Seeker's head, her short black hair swishing as she spun around, a look of shock replacing the usual sneer…I enjoyed that mental picture much more than I should have, and Emma liked it better. She even attempted to flex one of our hands…and failed to twitch a finger. I felt an unbecoming surge of disappointment that she wouldn't be able to level the punch after all.

I scowled. It was a facial expression that I wasn't familiar with – it wasn't one that a soul should ever wear. These were awful, hateful thoughts. Human thoughts. I shouldn't be having them. But then, what I _was_ really shouldn't have existed at all in the first place. I was an aberration: a renegade soul. The more time I spent with Emma, cooped up in the same head, the more like her I seemed to be becoming. So I scowled.

I couldn't help being in a bad mood while I was suffering through this flu, especially when our Seeker was badgering me all day to see a Healer. Slamming the door in her face had been much too satisfying, and I was sure I'd be paying for the short-term gratification later, when she returned. I shuddered at the thought of facing her again, but I knew I'd have to eventually. We were co-workers after all.

Emma sympathized with me as much as she could. Although every fiber of her being rebelled against the fact that a Seeker had invaded her mind and body, at the present she was feeling what I felt – which happened to be horribly sick – so this had to be taking its toll on her too. She was acting calmer, less resentful. She was treating me more kindly than usual, and for a pulse-quickening moment I thought I could find a way around her iron defenses.

I was wrong.

The mental walls slammed down so hard against my tentative search that it hurt. I was already feeling woozy and sick. Now, I also felt a searing pain in my head. Wonderful. I screwed up my face against her pointy thoughts; it never ceased to surprise me how much energy and force she could muster, even in the roughest conditions.

_I thought I told you not to go looking for that,_ came her furious remark. The effect was spoiled by the slightly queasy lilt to the cadence of her voice as it sounded in my head.

I answered her aloud, my own voice cracking with the effort, "Just trying to do my job, you know. Then we could be rid of our Seeker. And the Comforter, too. I know you hate them…Perhaps we could even be rid of each other; I could skip to a more pliable host, and you could be discarded as you would have preferred prior to our meeting."

She was silent for a minute, offended and sulking.

"I'm sorry," I ventured after a few minutes had passed, my words sincere.

_Forgiven. Only because I know you didn't mean it. We're in this together, Crystal Spirals, whether we like it or not. And I'm also doing my _own_ duty. Never forget that._

"I know you are, Emma. That's what makes it so hard for us. Neither of us chose this, and neither of us has an easy way out."

_You're right. But as far as body snatchers go, you've been decent. You haven't erased me, at least._

"You haven't _let_ me erase you," I answered, "and you've done nothing but prevent me from doing my other job."

Our lips curled into an involuntary smile. I couldn't tell which of us was responsible for it, but at this point I didn't care.

_True. I _told_ you- I still have a few promises to keep. So for now, you're stuck with me. We're stuck together._


	3. Lost and Found

**Lost and Found**

It was my turn behind the wheel of our simple, low profile sedan. The car's unostentatious appearance belied the trouble we had been through to get it; stealing it had been one of the riskiest raids we had undergone, and probably the most vital to our continued survival. I shuddered to think how quickly the Seekers would have chased us down if we hadn't had a speedy means of transportation for ourselves. My assessment wasn't a pretty one; we wouldn't have lasted long.

Without the car, we would have been caught by now.

But I had promised myself I wouldn't think about that…about losing this battle for humanity to the parasites that had taken over everyone's bodies. Chris wouldn't like it if he knew how much I worried about our future.

_He_ certainly wasn't wasting his time fixated on all of the hideous possibilities of being caught. Instead, he was making the best of his time as a passenger, slumbering fitfully in the seat beside me. He had reclined back as far as the seat would allow, kicked off his shoes, and drawn his knees up to curl into as comfortable a position as he could in the limited space.

I smiled faintly, glad that he could relax for a while. He so rarely got rest anymore these days, with the hateful Seekers hot on our trail.

Fortunately, we seemed to have ditched our body-snatching pursuers for the time being. I hadn't seen or heard them chasing after us since we had crossed the state line between Colorado and Arizona earlier this morning. It felt good to know that we weren't in _immediate_ danger. For once.

Our only hazard at present came from indecision and the lack of a destination. Where on earth were we going to go, and what were we going to do when we got there? I had absolutely no idea. We had a map, of course, and I had been following it thus far, though I wasn't sure where I was following it _to_. I knew our precise geographical location for all the importance it had; according to the various road signs I had seen as well as my own calculations, we were now about sixty miles south of Phoenix, and forty or so miles north of Tucson.

All of my handy map work was rendered obsolete by our surroundings. I was lost in Arizona; trying to process the stark beauty of the desert that unfolded around us was blowing my mind. The uniformity of the harsh landscape and the sparse vegetation of the desert passing outside my window fascinated me; I was captivated by the savage elegance in the purple color of the jagged volcanic rock formations, the way the bowls and valleys of the land lay open to the elements, and the vast inverted blue bowl that was the sky.

The desert stretched to the mountains – hills, really – that fell into line with a distinctive looking formation…one of the highway signs designated it as Picacho Peak. The shapes and contours of the crests were becoming clearer on the darkening horizon, and suddenly I felt the bizarre and extremely dangerous desire to go exploring in the dusky light.

Not the smartest of ideas. Wandering through an exposed area on foot with armed Seekers ferreting around in our shadow was like flirting with disaster. However, logic didn't change how I felt about getting some air and stretching my cramped legs a bit, and I was certain that Chris would appreciate the opportunity as much or more than I.

After all, it wasn't as if we were going to run about with wild abandon, lighting fires all around to draw our relentless stalkers in on us. They weren't close by, as far as I could tell, and a break from the road would do us good. Maybe it would even help confuse the Seekers…

Convinced that a short detour for the night wouldn't put us in more peril than we were in already, I decided it was time to leave the main road. The highway behind us was devoid of other cars, so I pulled over on the shoulder to check the map again.

When the car was stopped completely and there was no danger that doing so would wake Chris with the sudden noise and pressure change, I cracked my window. A trickle of fresh air filtered in through the narrow gap between glass and metal; it was hot and dry, and smelled somehow spicy. The temperature outside was slowly cooling off as the sun made its slow descent from the sky, and the June air, though still hot, was refreshing as a change from the stale air generated by the cooling unit in the car.

Plants, I was sure, had something to do with the wild odor that prevailed in the air. I knew some of them; the prickly pear and cholla cactus bristling with thorns were familiar to me from my expeditions across Colorado's shortgrass prairies, and the shape of the giant saguaro was impossible _not_ to recognize. There were also a few scruffy-looking, wispy trees that I was sure were called creosote, and I had a hunch that the spicy, slightly resinous fragrance came from them.

I blinked several times and shook my head to clear it. I had no time for sentimental waffle, and I couldn't afford to spend even a moment lost in my musings. I returned my flighty attention to the heavy paper unfurled on my lap – a tourist's map of Arizona, dutifully retrieved from a trashcan near a scenic overlook. My finger slid along the thin black line that denoted the highway we were on, searching for a likely turnoff. I traced the route until I found an unmarked dirt road that wound away from the main one and continued in the general direction of the hills. It wasn't far ahead of where I guessed we were.

It was perfect. I flashed a wide grin and pulled onto the deserted highway again, intent on finding my upcoming exit.

I located the road with ease, despite the fading light of the sun. It was just a thin trail of gravel that led deep into the desert no-man's-land through the sparse vegetation, barely wide enough to accommodate even our slim sedan.

There was a slightly rusty chain strung between two poles across the entrance – presumably to keep trespassers out. I guessed that none of the body-snatchers lived through here, because the trusting parasites would have left the entry clear for anyone to pass right through. Good…that meant that we would be safe here for a while.

Unfortunately, I would have to get out of the cab to take the chain off, which meant waking my companion either with the sound of the slamming car door or by hand. I decided on the less rude approach and reached over to shake him lightly, my slender hand falling on his upper arm. He woke quickly and silently, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"How long have I been out?" he asked, no trace of drowsiness in his voice as he raised his seat to the upright position and scanned the landscape with keen grey eyes. My lips pulled up at the corners in a rueful smile.

"Not long enough, I'm sure. We're in Arizona, and taking a little trip into the wild for the night."

"And the Seekers?" came the immediate, urgent second question.

"Lost 'em when we crossed the state line," I answered somewhat smugly, my smile widening in satisfaction. It was an expression that his face copied exactly, less than a second later.

"And so, we are stopped because…?" he cast around for the reason I had halted, and his eyes lighted on the chain. "Ah. I'll get it, Emma. Wait."

He didn't pause for my reply before he hopped out, alert for any sign of our pursuit. When he found none, he stretched -a fluid motion- the hard muscles on his arms and shoulders rippled under his pale, freckled skin.

The chain, which would have been heavy and clumsy in _my_ hands, was like a light rope to him; he coiled it easily and walked to one side to let me pass. He winked-impossibly long black eyelashes fluttering-as I pulled the car through.

I rolled my own eyes, meditating on how _men_ always ended up with the pretty, feather duster lashes…it didn't seem fair.

With deft movements, he refastened the chain behind our bumper and climbed back inside the cab.

"Where to now? Are we just going to follow the road?"

"I guess so…I didn't really think beyond getting away from the highway. I'd like to get out and hike a bit when we stop, though."

He beamed at me, an expression that made his whole broad face light up. I felt him covering my hand resting on the gearshift with his own and twining our fingers together.

"I'm sure you would, and I wouldn't mind getting out of this damn thing for a while myself."

We stared out of the windows in contented silence as I eased the car back into life, and both of us relaxed perceptibly as the black line of asphalt disappeared behind us.

The garish intensity of the sun diminished and the cool inky-blue of twilight crept in lazy streaks across the sky. The advent of darkness washed over us, and we opened the windows wider, letting the still-heated air inside.

I had to watch the road carefully for ruts and potholes; it had clearly been a long time since anyone bothered to maintain it and grade over the wear of time with new gravel. This task became more and more difficult as the light gave out, and I certainly wasn't going to risk the headlights, which would alert the Seekers immediately. I was almost ready to call it quits for the day when Chris pointed excitedly off to the passenger side.

"Look there! A dry wash! It looks wide enough for the car, and will be much easier to navigate than this road. I vote we follow it for a while," he said, grinning at me.

In answer, I maneuvered the car carefully off the dirt road and through the wild vegetation. The wash was _definitely_ wide enough to accommodate the car, and I pulled into it eagerly. This would speed things up considerably, since the visibility was better and the wash was relatively smooth and easy to navigate with the car. The only thing that worried me, though, was the tracks we would leave…it would be easy for the Seekers to see depressions from the tires in the smoother sand…

I voiced my concerns, and as always, Chris had a ready solution. He hopped out of the cab and motioned for me to pop the trunk. I twisted in my seat to watch him at work behind the car, his stocky frame bent low, tying a weighted tarp along the back bumper. Any marks we made would be as good as erased as the tarp dragged along behind us. He caught my eye through the back windshield and we shared a smile of comeraderie.

The last of the sunshine vanished over the horizon, and the dark gathered in around us. Way out here with our headlights turned off, so far removed from the bright city lights, the blackness was close and almost stifling in intensity. No stars had risen yet, and the moon was just a sliver that provided insufficient light to see by…it was just a sort of faint glow in the murky night sky. It was ominous – I could only imagine what sort of creatures would skulk about, using this darkness to hide in.

I halted the car in the lee of a pile of loose purple rocks, thinking that it would be at least somewhat hidden. Time to stretch, eat something, and relax. I practically threw my door open in my hurry to be outside, regardless of how many imaginary creeping things might share the space with me.

I yawned and stretched, my hands curled into loose fists extended above my head, my back arched to stretch narrow shoulders. When I finished the movement, I turned to locate Chris. I expected him to be doing more or less the same thing I was-stretching, or contemplating our supplies of purloined food.

What I did _not_ expect was the look of shock and horror that crossed his face, or the impact with the hard-packed earth as he tackled me to the ground and assumed a defensive pose. His hand went reflexively to his side, where a leather holster used to hang. The motion was abandoned an instant later when he remembered we had lost the gun a week ago.

All our motions and any attempts at verbal communication ceased upon hearing two sharp metallic clicks, which seemed unnaturally loud in the sudden, dead silence all around.

A second later, gravel crunched under several pairs of feet, moving closer. Chris's body shook – with anger, grief, or fear, I couldn't tell which – and his arms tightened protectively, pulling me close to his chest while tucking me even farther beneath the protective arc of his body.

It was useless. The Seekers must have found us. We had failed, and they would cart us back to play host to another two parasites. I nearly sobbed in frustration. We hadn't even had time to put up a fight or do ourselves in before they could get us! How unfair that even suicide was out of the question for us, that we couldn't choose our own means of ending our lives before they erased us and stole our bodies.

"Well, well. What have we found here?" drawled a man's voice from the darkness. The metallic gleam of a rifle barrel appeared directly in my line of vision, aimed at us.


	4. Grand Entrance

**Grand Entrance**

The crunching noises around us were closing in. The rifle stayed trained on Chris, only faintly discernable in the thin moonlight. The person holding it remained virtually invisible but for his faint silhouette – a darker patch of dark in the darkness. Fantastic.

Chris and I clung helplessly to each other, stone-still and just as silent as we stared at our captors. We were frozen, undecided as to whether to try and make a break for the car, or to try and get ourselves killed fighting. Everyone was perfectly motionless, except the man with the gun.

"Well. This is a pickle, ain't no mistake about it."

There was another clicking noise, and all at once a bright ray of light struck my eyes and vanished the second after it had passed over. Was he checking for a reflection? The Seekers wouldn't bother, they'd know, so what-? Was this another trick? A ploy to get us to drop our guard?

The rifle was lowered, and there was an audible sigh of relief from the faceless crowd that had gathered in a tight ring around the two of us.

"They aren't parasites, then," said another voice, this one higher- a female voice.

"That's right, folks," came the gunner's voice.

I flinched as he crouched next to us, and Chris stiffened for attack, but the man only sent a quick beam from the flashlight over his own eyes. There was no silver halo around the pupil of his light blue eyes, no bright and unnatural silver reflection showed in the golden flash.

We were in human company. We were _safe_. Relatively. Humans could be as dangerous as the body-snatching _'souls'_ these days.

"The name's Jeb. Why don't you follow us somewhere where we can use our lights without a risk, and you can explain to us what you're doing out here."

Chris hadn't moved at all since the sound of the gun being primed. I guessed that he was still frozen with indecision. We'd had…_difficulties_…with people who envied our resources. I wasn't going to let him scoop me up and attempt to bolt...moving suddenly away from them would probably startle our company into shooting us, and now that I knew these weren't parasites, death or severe injury was not to be taken lightly.

"Chris, I think we're safe for now," I muttered in his ear, giving him a light push on the shoulder for emphasis. He hesitantly let me go and slowly stood up, and I too scrambled to my feet, using his leg for support as I righted my body.

"Well?" asked Jeb.

"Um…" I thought for a moment, debating what to do. The car was still parked half under the rocks, but if any Seekers had seen the lights they would come to investigate, and it wasn't hidden well enough to go unnoticed if it came to a closer inspection of the area.

"What about our car? Won't it be a dead give away that we're somewhere nearby?"

Jeb looked turned his head to look appraisingly at the modest sedan, his lips curving into a small smile.

"True," he replied.

I could see from his expression that the cogs in his brain were whirling; he was already thinking about all of the ways the car could be useful to him. It made me a little nervous…just because these people were human didn't mean they wouldn't rob or harm us. We knew that better than most.

That was one good thing about the body snatchers. They wanted their quarry alive to play host, so they were careful about how they went about capturing people. A human could help us, but could also just as easily decide to shoot us and take our things without feeling any remorse.

Jeb must have seen from the way my face set and my body tensed for trouble that his words – or lack thereof – had made me uneasy.

"Don't worry, darlin'. We're not gonna steal it from you. Just thinking that if you end up stickin' around we'll be able to make good use out of it."

He made a small, beckoning gesture with his hand, and another man moved in.

"If you give Ian here your keys, he'll pull the car around and park it where it will be well hidden. There are some caves on the far side where even a seeker wouldn't be able to spot it."

I blinked, calculating an answer. Was Jeb telling the truth, or was he bluffing to get me to comply with his request? Chris's eyes darted to mine, his face masklike. He nodded his head a fraction of an inch.

I held out the key and dropped it into the pale palm that appeared to take it.

"Okay, then. What now?"

"Now," said Jeb, "You follow us."

Ian and yet another man got into the car, and I heard the purr of the engine as they started the ignition.

"Wait," I said, remembering the supplies in the trunk, "we have some stuff in there. Su-" I faltered, "Supplies."

Jeb's eyebrows shot up, and Ian's head poked out of the open window on the driver's side. He spoke for the first time, "Don't worry about it, Jeb. We'll bring it all in and stick it in a storage cell when we come back on foot."

_Storage _cell? Just how equipped _were_ these people, anyway? Jeb only nodded and turned away, setting a rigorous pace as he walked off in the opposite direction. "C'mon, you two. I didn't catch your names…?"

"I'm Emma," I offered, and looked over at my silent companion. He returned the glance steadily, his grey eyes boring into my hazel ones. He sighed.

"Chris," he said after a moment of hesitation.

I smiled dryly – he was much less trusting than me, and was being cautious. He wasn't about to start believing or giving Jeb any unnecessary information just because we were going along with the man's group. But he had given his real name, too, which was reassuring to me.

"Nice names."

"Thanks. I have a question for you."

"I have an answer."

"Who are you, and exactly _how many_ of you are there?"

He chuckled dryly.

"This is Aaron, Brandt, Lily, and Trudy," he said, pointing around in the dark at the small group that was walking with us. "The two that left to take care of the car were brothers, Ian and Kyle. We make twenty nine, all told."

"_Twenty six_?" Chris gasped incredulously, "How have you avoided the parasites with that big of a group?"

"And how are there so _many_ of you _period_?" I added.

Jeb and the others laughed pleasantly.

"Oh, we're well hidden out here. Jeb's got a mighty fine little hideaway. And what? Did you think you were the last ones out there? There are plenty of humans who aren't going to go down without a fight," said a woman's voice. I guessed it was Lily; Jeb had indicated that patch of darkness when he'd introduced her.

"It's just surprising is all," said Chris, who seemed to be warming to the idea of joining another large group, "We didn't realize it was possible to have so many together without drawing unwanted attention. Had a little bit of trouble with that. Maybe you've just got a better place to hide."

"Trouble, eh? Sounds like you've got a story for us. But save it until we get back under cover; you'll move quicker if you're not using up breath on talking."

He had a point, and we fell into an obedient silence. I was wondering nervously what other sorts of surprises this trek held in store for us, but Chris was there beside me-my infallible anchor to sanity. I brooded on how long I'd have lasted without him. Not long, I was sure. His lightning quick thinking and decisive actions had saved us time and time again from traps that would probably have landed me as a host long ago if I had been on my own. Which was why I was able to act calm now. Because he was being cautious as always, but had started to relax.

The hike was long-it took well over an hour even at a vigorous walk, but I didn't mind. It gave me the chance I had been waiting for to explore the desert. Our footsteps echoed off of the jutting rocks, but soon the desert floor leveled out a little more. The sand was smooth and pale under the light of the stars that had risen during the walk.

When we reached our destination, Chris and I were surprised to find ourselves staring at a very natural looking miniature mountain of tumbled boulders, complete with ragged bushes growing haphazardly all over it, presumably disguising openings.

"Wow. This is it? You camouflage very well."

Jeb smirked proudly.

"Thank you kindly. The entrance is right here."

He vanished into a cleverly disguised opening in the rocks. Trudy and Lily-though I couldn't be sure which was which-followed him through it immediately.

Aaron and Brandt lingered behind, clearly waiting for us to make a move.

Chris and I exchanged looks, but it was really too late for us to back out. And we weren't ready to give up hope that we'd be safe with this group, and would finally be able to settle down and stop running for once.

If we left now, there was only so far we'd be able to make it before we were detained. And we both knew it. He slipped his hand into mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Hoping we hadn't just signed our own death warrants, I took a deep breath and allowed Chris to guide me along as he followed Jeb into the low, dark tunnel.


	5. Rest

**Rest**

After the long hike in the exposure of the desert, the pitch-black, cramped tunnel was a nightmare to me. The air seemed unnaturally still and cool after our traipse across several miles of hot desert. I felt less secure in the dark, tight space than I had out in the open under the stars, so I hung back, hesitating to go further.

I stifled the urge to scream as something –a sweaty hand- brushed my arm, and I clutched myself tightly to Chris who made something like an angry hissing noise through his teeth over his shoulder at the men behind us. There was a muttered 'sorry' from one of them.

I was overreacting. They were only _human_. There was nothing lurking in the darkness to spring out at me…that I could see…which wasn't saying much since there was zero visibility for me. It wasn't a comforting thought; my overactive imagination was good at making things worse than they could ever be. I banished all thoughts of being attacked in the dark and berated myself for being so childish and skittish.

The passage was quite narrow, so Chris and I were forced to separate and go in single file; he fell into line behind me and remained a comforting presence there, his hand resting lightly on my shoulder. We didn't take many steps before the tunnel switched back at a sharp angle and began to descend steeply, and I concentrated on not slipping on the steps.

This was taking _forever_. Or perhaps it was only that I had lost all sense of time and direction down here. I hurriedly made up a few excuses-I had spent a very long day driving, and then done a tiresome hike through the desert…I was entitled to a little weariness.

We rounded another corner and began to ascend again. I trailed my fingers along the wall to either side to help guide my way and keep my balance. Just when I was losing the last of my energy and was ready to give up on the climb, the rock beneath our feet leveled out. I rested for a moment, catching my breath.

Surprisingly enough, Jeb was right there waiting for us. He hailed me before I could bump into him in the lightless space and held out something round and metal. It made a wet swishing as I took it, and I realized it was a canteen. I took a greatful drink to wet my parched mouth and passed the water to Chris.

"Not far, now," Jeb encouraged as he trotted on again.

We followed. It was a relief to be on flat ground again, though we had to weave since the path snaked in twists and turns.

The darkness in front of us began to thin, growing fuzzy all around the edges and gradually lighter. When we reached the end of the tunnel, I blinked in the dim light. We were in a large natural cave with uneven, pockmarked walls of the same purple rock that formed the passages.

The light in here had filtered through from a larger hole. Jeb walked straight across the dusty floor and stepped through the entrance of that hole, beckoning us along. Chris and I followed somewhat reluctantly, wondering what lay in store for us next.

The last passage was short, and when it opened out I couldn't help myself. I gasped.

We stood at the edge of a vast, empty cavern hollowed out of the rock. The walls were rough, marked with tens, perhaps _hundreds_ of random crevices and tunnels with entrances of varying sizes. Some looked like they had come to be naturally, but others looked like they had been tooled out of the rock by hand-or at least shaped and enlarged.

The ceiling was so lofty and elevated that I almost couldn't make it out. The light came from there, where from high above us the pale, silvery light of the moon shone down. But strangely enough, there must have been a hundred small moons, all spread out across the ceiling. Some seemed smaller and farther away than others, and they were all scattered about in no uniform way. I blinked and shook my head to see if my eyes were playing tricks, but the moons stayed put.

Brandt and Aaron brushed past us and disappeared into other passages, but Jeb stayed put and waited for us while we stared around, taking in our surroundings.

"The light," Chris asked excitedly, "what's the trick?"

Jeb grinned.

"Mirrors. It took _years_ to get them to sit just right. We'll explain everything to you on a tour of the place tomorrow, but right now we're going to find you folks a decent pace to stay. Follow me."

Jeb's kind smile set us at ease. He led around the edge of the cavern and into a wide natural tube. We had to be close to the surface, because there was a fissure in the ceiling here and a decent sized sliver of moonlight shone down on the path. We reached a place where the tunnel branched out octopuslike into many, and he stopped briefly here.

"We're taking the third from the left. Remember that, because it's easy to get lost. This wing's used mostly for some storage and sleeping quarters."

He moved on, counting the numbers of the openings we passed aloud so that we could find our way on our own. I silently memorized them, knowing that Chris was doing the same thing beside me. I nearly bumped into Jeb when he stopped, so intent was I on committing the turns to memory.

"You two can have this room here. Seventh door," he said quietly.

An ornate, jade-colored screen painted with cherry blossoms obscured the entrance to the cave. It seemed out of place in the dusty tunnels, more suited for a partition in a fancy house. Jeb moved it to one side to show us the space, and I liked it immediately. It was lighter and more open than most of what we had seen so far; the night sky was visible through a few round, dinner-plate sized holes in the ceiling. It was roughly rectangular in shape, a little taller than it was wide, with shelf-like alcoves in the walls that could be used for storage. To complete the package, a queen-sized mattress with two pillows dominated the floor in the far corner of the room. A neat pile of blankets sat folded on top of it, ready for use.

"Is this alright?"

I smiled brightly and nodded in answer, too overcome by the promise of having a safe place to stay to give a proper answer or thanks, but Jeb looked like he understood.

"I'll leave you to get some rest, then. It's late, and I need my shuteye too. I'll be round in the mornin' to pick you up for your tour."

When Jeb was gone, I sank down on the mattress. It would be heavenly to sleep on a real one after so many nights spent on the uncomfortable car seats or on the hard ground. Chris joined me, seating himself gingerly down on the mattress as if he didn't quite believe it was real.

"What do you think of this place, Emma?"

I sighed. I didn't really know what I thought. It seemed such a foreign idea to be able to stay in one place again…and with other people who still had their own minds!

"I think I like it. And I trust Jeb…sort of. It's nice. Almost _too_ nice."

He grinned at my typical, pessimistic and uncertain answer.

"I like it too," he said happily, "I think we should stay and see how these people live. Maybe make a few friends. Fight for the cause."

He didn't just _like_ it – he was delighted to be here. As I studied the strong, straight planes of his face, I could see how the lines of worry that had been there for the past few weeks were beginning to melt away. Chris looked more like the carefree friend I remembered so well…from before the time when our world was stolen. More given for a smile than a grimace. And so, I'd bury my uncertainty so he wouldn't see it. So the frown of concern would go away for a while longer.

"It's decided, then. We'll stay." I lay back on the mattress and grabbed a blanket and pillow for myself. The feeling of the soft padding under my back and head was heavenly. "May as well get some rest for our tour. I have a feeling Jeb is an early riser."

He nodded and also reclined, claiming his own pillow and blanket. I rolled over, wrapping up and positioning myself closer to him, and his arms bundled me into a secure embrace. I reflected on all of the choices that had brought us here to sanctuary-the good and the bad. Haunting memories danced inside my head, chafing against my feeling of security and tearing at my delicate self-control. I forced myself to block them out of my mind and bury them deep.

'Lock them away inside and grapple with them there until your fear is gone. Keep it hidden. Don't let others worry,' I told myself.

A soft sigh escaped my lips, and Chris's hand rubbed soothing circles on my back. I rested my head against his chest and his heart beat out a steady, calming tattoo in my ear. I felt his breath across my hair, and he planted a reassuring kiss on top of my head. With him so close and real and safe, here with me in this place where we would finally be hidden from the dangers that had thus far been plaguing our footsteps, my misgivings seemed silly.

My fears scattered like dust before the wind, and I slipped into a quiet sleep in his warm arms.


	6. To the River Room

**To the River Room**

When I woke on the first morning after our arrival, the light outside our makeshift windows in the rock showed pale and grey. It was also a little chilly – by desert standards. The air was already getting warm, though, and it was still early. This day promised to be blisteringly hot.

Chris still slumbered fitfully by my side, though at some point in the night I had rolled apart from him. I had long since learned that he had a tendency to thrash around in his sleep, and now I studied him from a few feet away across the mattress.

Wrapped in his tangled blanket, Chris's pale, freckled face looked untroubled in the morning light. Beneath an unruly mop of espresso hair, his brow was smooth and free of the anxious furrows that had become so characteristic, and his eyes flicked back and forth beneath closed lids. Dreaming. His usually tensed, stocky body was sprawled in a somewhat ungainly way, muscles hard from years of swimming and water polo slack with rest. His out-flung arms stretched in my general direction and seemed to be searching for me. Even in sleep he wanted reassurance that I was still there. I sighed.

We had always been close friends…_best_ friends. Before the end of life as we knew it, people had always nagged us to admit that we were secret lovers or something; the memory of their efforts to expose our nonexistent romance still made me grin. I realized that Jeb and the others must think the same – that we were a couple. Now, scrutinizing Chris's reaching arms and remembering his reassuring kiss last night, I wondered if they were right after all.

Had we had indeed crossed the line from friendship to something more…without realizing it? Surely not. Close as we were, there was nothing amorous about our relationship. Our intimacy was built on years of comradeship and trust, of running around wild together since we could barely walk, of divvying up credit for mischief since we could manufacture it, of sharing all our secrets. We were practically brother and sister. Just like me and–but I promised myself I wouldn't think about that.

Another sigh. I shifted so that I was no longer watching my sleeping companion. Troubled thoughts chased their way around my head, and I knew I would soon have to deal with them. At the moment, however, I put them from my mind. The most pressing crisis was my uncomfortably full bladder. I _really_ needed to pee.

I chuckled at the triviality of this problem then quickly snuck a peek at Chris to make sure I hadn't woken him. He was still asleep, and stayed so as I carefully slipped out of my blankets and stood up to yawn and stretch. The night had been spent in heavenly comfort compared to our recent stints of sleeping in the car or on the hard ground. For once, I didn't feel stiff. I beamed.

The need to relieve myself drove me to the jade screen, and I slipped silently around it and out into the tunnel to ask directions. Unsurprisingly, Jeb was already waiting for me, sitting slouched against the tunnel as if the hard angle between the floor and wall created the most comfortable chair in the world.

"Mornin'," he said brightly, climbing heavily to his feet, "I'm guessing you'll want to clean up and maybe do some other business, too."

I nodded, and he set off at a brisk trot down the corridor. I hurried to follow, and we wended our way back through the tubes to the main cavern. The sheer size of this room still shocked me, but I had no time to look around. Jeb led me around the edge of the cave to another natural passageway – medium in size – that descended into the darkness.

"This mountain here," he shot over his shoulder, "used to be a volcano, would you believe it? Mighty handy that the lava left these tubes as it cooled, and some other goodies too, as you'll soon see."

I focused on placing my feet; this tube began a steep decline, and was lit only by the diffuse light from a fist-shaped hole in the ceiling somewhere along the tunnel. Once we passed the epicenter of the illumination, the slant of the floor became sharper, and rough but sturdy steps had been worked into the rock.

As we climbed down, the air became steadily hotter and more humid, and I thought it smelled strange…a faintly sulfurous tang. My hair began to frizz up even as I felt myself start sweating. I was hit by a mental image of descending into hell, disrupted almost immediately by a more practical thought.

"Jeb, is there a hot springs down here?"

He paused in his tracks to grin widely at me, and in that moment I was suddenly struck with the ridiculous impression that he looked like Santa. His eyes twinkled secretively from deep-set sockets, and his thick snowy beard pulled up as he revealed a flash of teeth. He looked positively jolly. I laughed.

"I'll take that as a yes?"

"See for yourself!"

We rounded the corner, and he stepped to the side to reveal a bright archway, dancing with morning sunlight that shimmered off plumes of steam. I flapped my slender hands to fan some of it away, and found myself in a large room lit with the same quality of light as the main plaza. In this room, though, the luminosity danced off of swirls of heated vapor from hot subterranean streams.

Two rivers gushed through the cave, creating a cacophony of melodious echoes. The closer one to us was smaller – more like a swift but forceful creek that threatened to spill over its banks. The other, a deeper, bass presence visible through a few sunken holes in the floor, was clearly a much larger body of water.

Listening to running water did nothing to ease my bladder, but I stood for a moment completely fascinated.

"This is _incredible_!" I watched the surge of the steaming streams carefully, feeling the rush of it beneath my feet, "Is it…stable?"

"As far as we know, hon," Jeb motioned me to follow him again as he picked his way across the floor, "Nobody's fallen in yet, but I'd be careful if I was you. Get sucked up in _that_ and the current would take you straight underground. We've got a much safer area set up back here."

We slipped between three stalactites and stalagmites that had fused to form pillars between ceiling and floor, and on the far side of the cavern was another tunnel entrance.

"Back there, Emma, you'll find there's a big tub for washing up. We dug it out several months ago, and the water's warm, but not hot enough to boil you. We don't have a schedule or anything for who gets to use it when, but privacy's not much of an issue. Black as pitch in there."

He looked me over, "I'm guessing you'll want to wait until you can find a clean set of clothes to take a bath – maybe you've got some in your supplies? The boys brought all your things and stuck 'em in a storage cell. I'll show you where when your pal wakes up. For now though, you might like to take advantage of the next cave on from the pool. It's as far back as we could follow the stream, and we've rigged it as a latrine."

"Convenient and sanitary," I peered apprehensively into the thick darkness, not wanting to fall into the pool on my way to the bathroom, and Jeb pressed a flashlight into my hand.

"Not to worry. We don't use these down here usually, but since you don't know your way around by heart yet, take a light."

I thanked him with a smile, heartened by his qualifying word 'yet,' and went to explore. The so-called bathtub was about the size of a small swimming pool, and so clear it looked as black as the wet volcanic rock that held it. I could see movement on the surface, and realized it must have an undercurrent just as the latrine did. Convenient and sanitary indeed. I skirted around the edge of it and proceeded directly through the narrow gap in the wall that led to the second cave with the latrine.

When I returned to the river-room feeling much better, Jeb was waiting for me in the same place. I returned the flashlight, and cheerfully asked, "Now what?"

"Now, I think we'd better wake your friend. It's high time for breakfast and some explanations."


End file.
